Social Scientists / Prehistory Review

What is the best definition for the term prehistory?

• Before written history.

• Before the existence of humans.

• Before the discovery of electricity.

• Before the development of the English language.

What are the main questions a historian seeks to answer?

• What happened in the past and why?

• Who is the greatest historian?

• How the earth's geological features developed?

• How can humans make contact with extraterrestrial life?

Which of these are human-made features that might be marked on a map? Select all that apply.

• A road.

• A city.

• A car.

• An ocean.

Why is the study of prehistory so challenging?

• There are no written records and few artifacts surviving from that time period.

• We don't know how to interpret the records prehistoric people wrote.

• There are so many artifacts from that time period we can't analyze them all.

• The government refuses to let archaeologists study evidence from that time period.

True or false- many prehistoric cave paintings show animals that lived near the caves at the time they were painted.

• True

• False

True or false- social scientists have been able to figure out for sure what the strange geometric shapes on prehistoric cave paintings mean.

• True

• False

What was the first hominin to make and use simple tools?

• Homo habilis

• Homo erectus

• Homo sapiens

What was the first hominin to learn how to make and use fire?

• Homo habilis

• Homo erectus

• Homo sapiens

What was the first hominin to make paintings and musical instruments?

• Homo habilis

• Homo erectus

• Homo sapiens

Hominins first appeared on which continent?

• Africa

• Asia

• North America

• Europe